Golf ball marks are a continuous problem for greenskeepers. Unrepaired ball marks detract from the appearance of the greens as well as significantly shortening their lives. When a golf ball lands on the surface of a green, especially from a high trajectory, the momentum of the golf ball puts a dent or ball mark in the green. The area of the ball mark at the bottom of the mark is more compressed than the area near the top of the ball mark. The ball mark must be repaired in order to maintain the smooth contour of the green, to maintain appearance of the green in particular and the golf course in general, and to extend the life of the green.
A majority of golfers will attempt to repair their own ball marks while playing their round of golf. The individual golfer uses a wide variety of ball mark repair tools which range from the pointed end of a golf tee to the specially made green repair tools designed to be carried in the golfer's pocket. While these efforts to repair ball marks go a long way towards improving the problems associated with unrepaired ball marks, not every golfer fixes his or her ball marks. Even though a majority of golfers do repair their own ball marks, not every golfer does an adequate and complete job of repairing ball marks.
The greenskeeper is provided with a number of ball mark repair tools to repair the unrepaired ball marks as well as the ball marks partially repaired by the individual golfers. These prior art devices have a plurality of fingers which penetrate the surface of the green and lift the dirt and grass back into place. These prior art repair tools are normally provided with a vertically extending handle which activates the plurality of fingers through various linkage systems pushing them into the ground. The vertically extending handle enables the greenskeeper to repair ball marks without bending over or crawling around on the green.
The problem associated with the prior art ball mark repair tools is that the linkage systems are designed such that a single action of the tool forces the plurality of fingers into the ground in an angular or conical manner around the ball mark. Thus, when these prior art circular tools are placed around a ball mark, the plurality of fingers extend into the ground in a generally conical manner with the ball mark. Thus, when these prior art circular tools are placed around a ball mark, the plurality of fingers extend into the ground in a generally conical manner with the ball mark being located on the base of the formed cone. This single action of the tool which produces an angular or conical motion of the fingers does not provide an adequate depth to reach the bottom of the ball mark where the highest compression of soil is located. Rather than extending the fingers into the ground in a cylindrical manner to provide adequate depth and then changing the fingers to a conical shape, the prior art tools attempt to repair the ball marks by using only the upper material or surface of the green without providing any significant depth to the repair area. This shallow repair technique does not get sufficiently below the bottom or highest compressed area of the ball mark and thus does not adequately repair the greens day after day.
Accordingly, what is needed is a ball mark repair tool which extends deeply into the green prior to lifting the dirt and grass back into place. The deeper penetration of the ball repair area will provide a much more stable repaired area.